From the Publisher
All of us who treat religion and faith as a serious part of our lives are constantly wrestling with the meaning of God. Our existence is derived from God and destined for God. And, in between, we long to know God. But how?

This important new book offers the reader an opportunity to relate to God on a new level of intimacy, awe, wonder and humility. Each chapter looks at various names, images and metaphors for God -male and female, animate and inanimate - used in both testaments of the Bible, including images of Jesus and images used by Jesus.

Interview
How to describe God? Author offers answers.

Arthur Zannoni is a Twin Cities teacher and theologian who often works on Christian-Jewish relations. His latest book takes provocative look at just what name believers want to give to God.

Seems as if it would be kind of simple, no? God is God. But when one delves into the Judeo-Christian imagery, teaching and writing it becomes reassuringly complex.

This book is reminiscent of the saying that the "only God there is is the God above God." It often is impossible to put a name to the divine, as if the simple naming of the divine limits it, but Zannoni makes a valiant effort.

Zannoni looks at all kinds of ways to explain God, and seems to want to get his readers to think deeply about what the divine means to them. The deep theological insights are done in a breezy, approachable style. In other words, there's a lot of theology in a small book, but it's easy to read.

Zannoni agreed to an e-mail interview about his book.


How. should people use your book? Do you want to inspire or inform, or just start interesting discussions?

I would hope that people would be both informed and inspired by my book. If they are, I am sure the book will provoke all kinds of healthy discussions.

You seem to want the reader to find an expansive God, one that fills the universe. Would you agree with that statement?

Yes. People do a very good job affirming their own image of God. Our biggest challenge is to affirm the images others have of God. I would hope that readers would widen their horizons about God, and take God out of a box and have him/her dwell in the entire universe. God is not puny, but huge. People limit God, God does not limit God's self. God cannot be limited by language, or gender, or a particular religious tradition. God transcends all of that.

Say more about the statement that "Christianity has often ignored the fact that the first covenant was not canceled by God, but that it continues in the postbiblical religion of Judaism."

In light of my own study of the Bible and dialog with Jews for the past 25 years, I have come to realize that God's covenant was never limited to any one group. Rather the God of both Judaism and Christianity has entered into covenant with both groups and in so doing the two religions are siblings to one another. The younger sibling, Christianity, cannot claim that God canceled the covenant with the older sibling, Judaism. To do so would be to imply that God does not keep God's promises. Also, recent teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, found both in the Second Vatican Council and the teachings of the current Pope maintain that God has not abrogated his covenant with the Jews.

If you say, "all human language about God is inadequate," how, then, should readers try to find the words?

"Words" about or for God are simply envelopes that carry images for God, but they are not God.

"Words" for God are not just those that are made up of letters. God can be imaged in music, art, architecture, dance, and even mathematical equations. These are all fragile human reflections on the ultimate mystery who is God. Readers of my book will need to develop a posture of awe and wonder toward and about the deity. This will be the launch pad for their own God language.

Say a little more about your statement, "the Spirit also comes as a surprise, a divine intrusion into the lives of human beings."

The Bible is filled with examples of the Spirit being an intruding surprise. After all, Abraham and Sarah were not only surprised to have been called by God, but in their old age they were surprised by God with a child, Isaac. Or take Moses, as another example. All he was doing was tending sheep when he encountered the burning bush (Exodus 3) and God surprised him by not only talking to him from the bush, but by telling Moses that he would lead God's people out of Egypt. The same is true of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was surprised that she is pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 2).

Expand on your Idea that many Christians ignore the feminine images of God that Jesus used?

Since Jesus in two of the Gospels (Luke 11:2-4; Matthew 6:9-13) teaches the Our Father Prayer, Christians have invalidly assumed that he made a masculine image, namely "father" the only image for God. This is not true, for the Gospels present Jesus as portraying God as a woman who hid yeast in dough (Matthew 13:33), as a woman who searched her house for a lost coin (Luke 15:8-10) and as a mother hen who protects her brood under her wings (Luke 13:34). There is then biblical evidence that Jesus provides both masculine and feminine images for God, and Christians would do well to include both of them in their own imaging of God.

Say a little more about your sentences, "Other parallels between Wisdom and God reside in who she is rather than what she does. Like God she affects life with her very presence."

Some of the books of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) are referred to as Wisdom Literature. In these books Lady Wisdom (Sophia) is a vivid image for God. She is present with God at creation, is described as a skillful artisan (Proverbs 1:1) and a female image for God (Proverbs chapter 8). What she does is most important rather than just who she is. This is masterfully described in Proverbs 9:1-6 where Wisdom is described as a gourmet chef and a purveyor of maturity: "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live and walk in the way of insight." Whoever has tasted of this banquet will always want more of the inexhaustible nourishment, the instruction and discipline, that God/Wisdom provides.

Copyright © 1998-2007, Daniel J. Pierson.
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